Late last night, Italian Valentina Rocca finished the 2019 Italy Divide as the first female with a time of 5 days, 10 hours and 55 minutes. Here’s her moment of arrival captured by the organisers:

Valentina was followed seven hours later by Briton Philippa Battye, coming in as second female with a time of 5 days, 17 hours and 37 minutes. Chapeau to both.

And in a moving statement echoing James’s comments, Sofiane had this to say of their joint finish:

Riders are now finishing thick and fast, with 20 competitors over the line – including long-time leader Jay Petervary, who still managed a top 10 placement despite his potentially race-ending mechanical trouble.

All top five spots are now filled – with Levente Bagoly and Thomas Taut taking positions 3 and 4 just an hour apart. Italian Lorenzo Gamberini came in four hours later, completing the top five. Here’s his arrival filmed by the organisers:

In the women’s category, Valentina Rocca is around 80km away from the finish line. She’s followed by second female rider Philippa Battye at a distance of 60km, who’s been loading up on quality ride fuel with her fellow competitors:

The distances seem big compared to the closeness of the men’s category yesterday, but there’s still some big climbs to come through treacherous riding conditions. Keep watching the dots…

Until late last night, the race for third place was also relatively close. Romanian Levente Bagoly and German Thomas Taut were within 30km of each other for at least the last 24 hours, but a surge in speed looks to have clinched it for Levente – who is now just 4km from the finish line.

James Hayden took a break from celebrations to offer an insight into yesterday’s honourable finish, posting this update to LFGSS: